Step on

Lockdown + MS + work + homeschooling + needy cats = gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Think I need to remind myself I just need to take it one step at a time.

:: Step on by Happy Mondays

Let's get physical

I'm not one for exercise to be honest.

I know with MS that I really, really should. The benefits are well documented.

The MS Trust's website explains them clearly: "There have been many studies to look at the benefits of different kinds of exercise for people with MS. It can be hard to compare these studies, but they have in general shown exercise to be valuable for people with MS.

Moderate exercise has been shown to improve strength, mobility and bowel and bladder function for people with mild to moderate MS. Exercise is also helpful in helping maintain a healthy weight. This reduces your chances of acquiring co-morbidities, and can also reduce the impact of some MS symptoms, such as pain and fatigue.

Exercising is good for the mind and brain, not just the body. In general, exercise has been found to be neuroprotective, to improve symptoms of depression, improve cognitive processing speed, visuospatial memory, executive function and cognitive flexibility. These boosts can last for several days after exercising."

So, many excellent reasons there for pulling on my plimsolls and getting moving. But I just never really have - I've comforted myself that walking my daughter to school, doing the housework and having the occasional swim is enough. But I know it really isn't.

So it is with some surprise that I now find myself getting up every morning, stepping into my shorts and enjoying an online PE lesson courtesy of lockdown PE teacher Joe Wicks.

It started as a replacement sports session for my daughter while she's off school - but she gave up after a couple of weeks. I, however, haven't. Some of the exercises I can't do, and I adapt these for what my body can manage, but I'm really, really enjoying it.

Maybe all I needed was to be told what to do by an overly-enthusiastic curly-haired sports demon. Who knows? But it seems to be working - four weeks in and all but one session followed (we missed the first lesson, sorry Joe)

So thank you Joe, I hope it's doing me some good. And if (as the internet tells me) it takes 66 days to form a new habit, then we've still got a fair few weeks before exercise becomes a regular thing in my life.

But here's hoping Joe Wicks will help it become a fixture. Or, infact, a Wixture (I'll leave now.)

:: Let's get physical by Olivia Newton-John

Sovereign light cafe

It's the first week of the Easter holidays and we were due to be in Cornwall.

But due to the current situation, we are understandably not.

Instead, we are working (from home) and trying very hard to keep out daughter entertained and our spirits uplifted.

We've been thinking about how we might be able to bring a bit of Cornwall to us, and we've come up with the following ideas:

• spending time in our garden which, due to its overgrown nature and lack of care, is a little like the Lost Gardens of Heligan (before they were found)
• chalking a seaside scene on the patio
• enjoying the very welcome sunshine we are having this week
• grabbing as much family time together as possible
• attempting to make pasties - traditional and veggie
• filling the paddling pool (if the weather stays nice) to pretend it's the caravan site swimming pool

One of our favourite places to eat in Cornwall is a little spot in Looe called Daisy's Cafe which we have visited almost every year since our daughter was born.

She first paid a visit as a six-month-old, has since chomped her way through endless beans on toast lunches and coke floats.

So to recreate this experience, we've decided to pick our favourite meals from Daisy's menu and recreate them in our own cafe.

We haven't suddenly opened one. A couple of years ago we painted the tiny carport attached to our house (no where near big enough for a car) and made it into something approaching a cafe.

So here we sit, scoffing our Cornish favourites and making the best of where we currently are.
We're also hoping very much that Daisy's Cafe survives this horrible time; it's a very special place.

:: Sovereign light cafe by Keane
Nb this week's song is not based on Daisy's Cafe, but refers to a real cafe in Bexhill-on-Sea. If it's as lovely as the song then I'd definitely like to go.

Trash

My 11-year-old daughter has almost saint-like levels of patience, but even she is finding this coronavirus lockdown a bit of a chore.

In between my over-enthusiastic but patchy attempts at homeschooling, the lack of  real-life classmates and the limited exercise opportunities (apart from the marvellous PE with Joe), it's all a bit much.

So she's coping by getting the paints out and attacking all bits of nearby paper and card. It's rather lovely and is entertaining the cats, who love to sit and watch her do things they don't understand.

We've got a number of rainbows for windows, a small set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves figures and a waiting line of old canvases she's painted over in preparation for more artistic endeavours.

One of her pictures has found it's way to our rubbish bin. Not because it is rubbish, but because she wanted to tape it to the top as a way to say thank you to the crew who collect our trash - just some of the people who are still out and about doing the jobs that help keep us going.

The list of people we need thank is extremely long - not just waste collectors, but health and social care staff, teachers, shop workers, cleaners, social workers, benefits staff, police, prison staff, carers, everyone who keeps our utilities running; the list goes on.

As we go further and further into lockdown, the more and more grateful we should be that other people are out there doing the work.

As a society, we have undoubtedly taken some of these services and people for granted. I hope that whenever all of this is over, we will stop doing that and start saying a few more thank yous. In picture form or otherwise.

:: Trash by Suede